Tiberi family tackles tragedy by promoting road safety

Friday

Sep 15, 2017 at 5:43 AMSep 15, 2017 at 5:43 AM

Ken Gordon The Columbus Dispatch @kgdispatch

On a recent Saturday morning on a Northeast Side parking lot, Dom Tiberi looked to be his usual gregarious self as he worked a small crowd, shaking hands, patting backs and greeting people in the booming baritone voice familiar to those who watch the sports anchor on WBNS-TV (Channel 10).

A closer look, though, revealed a sadness in his eyes and the corners of his smile.

“Everyone says I’m so strong, but maybe I’m just a great actor,” Tiberi said. “Sometimes, the clown is the saddest guy in the room.”

Four years ago, on Sept. 17, 2013, Tiberi and his wife, Terri, lost their middle child, Maria, when she drove into the back of a semi in stopped traffic on I-270 on the West Side. Although Maria Tiberi wasn't using her cellphone (it was found in her purse), eating or drinking, authorities listed the cause of the accident as distracted driving because the car did not brake before the collision.

She was 21 years old.

It is in their daughter's memory that the couple, through the Maria Tiberi Foundation, invite teenagers and their parents to participate in Safe Driving Day, a hands-on class directed by professional driving instructors.

The campaign, launched by the family not long after the tragedy, aims to prevent distracted driving. The foundation pays for driving simulators and the cost of the classes.

Dom Tiberi has thrown himself headlong into the cause, channeling grief into urgency. He has spoken at more than 80 high schools, sharing “Maria’s Message” by asking each student to promise not to drive distracted.

“When you lose a child, you don’t care if you live or die,” he said. “But this (foundation) has given me a purpose.”

Maria’s death tore a gaping hole in the fabric of a tight-knit family. She was 14 months younger than her sister, Kelsey, now 26, and two years older than her brother, Dominic, 23.

“All three of us got along better than brothers and sisters usually do,” Dominic said. “And that’s the part that hurts — because not only did I lose a sister, but I lost a best friend, as well.”

Kelsey called the crash “a complete devastation to our family.”

Mrs. Tiberi, who worked as a radiologist in various medical offices, found that she couldn't return to work in such a setting. She now runs the foundation from the family's Dublin home.

Since Maria's death, Mrs. Tiberi has remained troubled by the sound of sirens.

“If somebody just left the house, I will call them because (Maria's crash) was so close to our house — just 3 miles away,” she said.

In those first few days after Maria died, Dom Tiberi said, he received similar advice from Gordon Gee (former president of Ohio State University) and his boss, John F. Wolfe (former CEO of the Dispatch Printing Co.)

“They both told me to get back to work as soon as I can — that I had to keep myself busy," he said.

The family quickly took on the goal of educating teenagers about the dangers of distracted driving..

For the past decade, according to the State Highway Patrol, motor-vehicle crashes have been the second-leading cause of death (to drug overdoses) for Ohioans ages 15 to 24.

Donations to the Maria Tiberi Foundation have helped the nonprofit purchase 42 driving simulators, which have been distributed to schools and police departments throughout Ohio.

In July, Ohio began a pilot program using a simulator at the Morse Road driver’s license testing center to help assess teen drivers’ skills or trouble spots.

The goal, according to Ohio Department of Public Safety Director John Born, is to one day require teens to pass a simulator test (on top of other requirements) before they can earn a driver’s license.

“Right now, it’s a screening tool,” Born said. “But none of that (pilot program) would have occurred without the Tiberi family’s efforts.”

Mr. Tiberi’s school speeches are personal and emotional.

“When you’re hearing a message from a guy who just lost his daughter, it shuts a room up,” said Mike Ulring, principal at Dublin Coffman High School, from which Maria and the other Tiberi children graduated.

“He gets right to it, and it touches you," Ulring said. "Every time he talks about it, he’s on the verge of tears. It’s powerful.”

The Safe Driving Days, started in 2014, take place one Saturday a month in June, July and August, with three classes held each day.

Professional instructors from the Mid-Ohio Driving School volunteer their time to help teach kids how to brake in wet road conditions, make an emergency lane change at high speed and handle a car that goes into a skid. The 90-minute classes are free.

Lewis Center resident Lori Mariotti signed up her youngest son, Lucas, 16, for the July class after her middle son’s girlfriend survived a car crash that killed two Olentangy Liberty High School students.

“The accident was on a Monday (July 17) and, on Tuesday, I started enrolling Lucas in the program,” said Mariotti, who also attended. “To hear Dom sharing his real-life experience, and then to have professional drivers speaking to some of these things, I can’t say enough good things about it.”

Powell residents Lori and Rich Irelan also said that Olentangy Liberty crash prompted them to enroll all three of their children. Two attended the July event, and son Nick, 15, attended in August.

“I thought it would be pretty boring, but it was cool,” Nick said. “The wet braking was my favorite. It’s good stuff to know.”

The classes are difficult for the Tiberi family — a reminder of what they've lost, Terri Tiberi said, and "I don't know if that's good or bad."

Still, they all are present and contribute, with Dom kicking off the event by sharing the family's story; Terri working the registration table, and Kelsey and Dominic often helping to reset the orange cones in the parking lot.

Dom Tiberi describes himself as being in a purgatory, one in which four hours represents a good night's sleep.

The grief remains painfully close to the surface.

But as the first group of students in the August class gradually left and a second batch of teens and parents arrived, Terri Tiberi noted that at least the effort gives Maria’s death some meaning.

“We don’t want to see anybody else go through this; we really don’t,” she said.

“It will never be the same, but I hope we save one of those kids.”

kgordon@dispatch.com

@kgdispatch

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